Worship

& Sunday School

10:00 a.m.

February Newsletter Deadline:

January 27th

Please send submissions via email

To see our worship up close at home, click one of the links below!

From the Pastor's Desk

A wise mentor once suggested to me that I should keep a record of my life in song. He noticed that I was doing this early on during my college career and told me to keep at it. For music has the power to elicit memories and evoke emotions that we associate with time and place, but also the resources we called forth to endure what has already come down the path of life.

This is why every New Year’s Eve I now spend time creating a song list for the year that has just occurred. A way to catalogue the events and reflect on the Spirit’s movement throughout the months and days. Because music does one thing more: it reminds us of our faith through the journey.

Looking toward the new year ahead, perhaps a question we have not considered is: what song would you choose to guide your path? Or what song would God choose for you?

Would it be a resolute muster of faith from A Mighty Fortress is Our God? Or perhaps a desire to refocus with Be Thou My Vision? Are you barely holding on and having a year when Previous Lord, Take My Hand will need to be your escort? Or maybe you’re wanting to make a difference and the uninhibited exuberance of This Little Light of Mine can’t wait to burst forth from your chest.

And those are just the traditional songs of faith. Maybe you need to kick off the new year with a traveling song like Lady Antebellum’s Compass. Or, if you’re feeling lost or overrun, there’s Ben Platt & Lin-Manuel Miranda singing Found/Tonight. Perhaps you are just trying to push through and you could use Andra Day’s Rise Up. Or maybe you and God just need to go dancing to a little classic Stand By Me, by Ben E. King.

No matter where you are in your personal walk of faith, there is a song that will feed you as we turn the corner into this new chapter in our lives.

And speaking of which, as a community we are heading into our 235^th Anniversary in 2023. So much history. Such a long story of this family of faith walking together through the joys and challenges of life. Our body stands as a remarkable testament to God’s presence in our lives and in the life of our church.

As a reminder to us of all God has done and all God is still does in our midst, let the song guiding our entrance into the New Year be Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It is a hymn and a prayer. A healthy reminder that God is always at work and never finished, binding our hearts to Christ and to one another.

Happy New Year and may God continue to lavish blessing upon blessing onto your families and our church in the months ahead.

Blessings,

Pastor Janie

Together in Worship

Holy Communion

This month we will celebrate the Lord's Supper on Epiphany Sunday, January 1, 2023.

Did you know?

While we always celebrate the arrival of the Magi with a Sunday that remembers Epiphany, we rarely have the opportunity in the calendar to have a separate Sunday to commemorate the baptism of Christ. However, the practice of doing so is quite ancient.

In earliest practice, the baptism of Jesus was remembered in conjunction with the arrival of the Magi because it marked the beginning of his ministry and the transition into ordinary time. This practice continues to this day in the Eastern Church where the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated as a part of the Great Feast of the Theophany, which includes both the baptism and the Magi.

In the West, however, the holy days began to be parsed out from one another within a few centuries, with the Baptism of the Lord usually being celebrated either within a week or the Sunday following Epiphany day. Although it was not until 1955 that the Roman Catholic Church made the practice unilaterally permanent, the commemoration had been widespread long before then. And it had been celebrated in the Lutheran church on the Sunday following Epiphany since its inception.

What this will mean for us is the opportunity to explore what baptism means for us, as individuals and as a community. It is one of our two Sacraments. Instituted by Christ himself. We will see not only what it meant for Jesus, but also how remembering our baptism is essential to our own walks of faith.

THIS Sunday, January 1, 2023

Help us to un-don the Sanctuary as we move from the Holiday Season into "Ordinary Time" and back into the heart of our church campus for the winter, our Chapel. We need all hands on deck as we carefully put our beautiful decorations away and keep them safe for next year.

On Sunday, January 8, we will be moving back into the Chapel for the remainder of winter. Everyone look forward to some cozy fellowship and fun conversation!

Together in Fellowship

Soup Saturdays begin on Saturday, January 7th at St. John's Reformed. We are hosting January 21st, 28th, and February 4th. Please mark your calandars and be sure to sign up by calling the Church Office or choosing which soups or desserts you'd like to bring on the sign up sheets in front of the Church Office. Thank you!

Coffee Walk

Join us for a warm break from the winter cold over a cuppa joe and cozy conversation among friends.

Tuesday, January 7^th:

Black Dog Cafe

519 Allegheny Street in Hollidaysburg

Tuesday, January 14^th:

Coffee on 3rd

1524 3rd Avenue in Duncansville (looks a bit like a used parking lot)

Special thanks to everyone who joined in and made our annual Advent Festival possible!

Learning Together

Keep an eye out...

Our Children's Nativity Play video will be premiering soon on our YouTube channel. We'll be sure to let you know when it does!

Building Together

Refinishing our Center

Throughout this holiday season, our Property Team has been hard to work doing two things: getting our boilers working and refinishing the top of our small Communion Table in the Chapel. While the boilers continue to be an ongoing project, we are very excited to present the final work on the table and want to thank our committee members for their diligent work!

Before:

After:

Caring Together

Please hold in prayer members of our church family and friends who are in special need: Reggie Arford, Ann & Laird Benton, Nancy Buchanan, Eleanor Carson, Anne Forsht, James Hammonds, Rodger & Sally Hammond, Paula Heim, Ticky Hendricks, the Family of Jere Hess, Bobbi Hill, Ron Kennedy, Norma McPhee, Betty Meyer, Tristan Myers, Vivian Norris, Sarah Ocker, Ray Overdorff, Pat Parnell, Ed Pratt, Aleta & Brad Reist, June Slep, Doug Soisson, Carol Stultz, John & Diane Stultz, Bill & Deb Wandersee, Phil & Stacey Willis & Family, Avery Marie Wineland.

Please also hold our troops in your prayers, including Trent Sipes, Kyle Gardner, Andrew Rosamilia, Cameron Sellers, and Harrison Heim, who are directly related to our congregation. Pray for our leaders and the leaders around the world as they are making decisions in the coming days. And please pray for all those who find themselves in harm's way that they may know God's presence and that they will have what they need.

Our Prayer List

Don't forget that our weekly & monthly Prayer List is wiped clean at the beginning of every month, with the exception of our homebound members. Everyone and anyone is always welcome to be added to our list. You will simply need to contact Pastor Janie or the Church Office and let us know that you would like to be added again for the following month. Please be sure to let us know by Sunday, January 29 if you would like to be on the prayer list for February. Thank you in advance for your help!

Giving Together

What does FPCH mean to you?

Imagine when our church was founded in 1788, what do you imagine the dreams of the original members looked like? Or when the Sanctuary was dedicated in 1871, how did they envision our church's future? What hopes do you have for FPCH and what it might look like in 15 or 25 years? What are you willing to do to make those dreams a reality?

Welcome to ICON!

Throughout this holiday season, our Church Administrator, Angela Koelle has been converting our membership and financial records to a new system called "ICON." It is user friendly, extremely effective, and will save the church thousands of dollars from the former system we had been using. Although the "official switch" does not occur until January 1, we are incredibly excited about being able to have full transparency in our financials for the future. Special thank you to Angela and keep your eyes peeled for future updates!

Giving Envelopes on the way!

Due to our new financial system, our 2023 Offering Envelopes will be available for pick-up beginning on Sunday, January 8th. Thank you for your patience!

Donate Now

Leading Together

Session has chosen Sunday, January 22, following worship, as the date for the Annual Congregational Meeting. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend.

While Session did not formally meet this month, they did approve a plan to repair and replace the boilers in the Education Building via email on December 7, 2022. One of the boilers, which is completely dead, has been broken down for parts to assist in repairing its twin boiler so that it is completely up to par. A second brand new boiler has been ordered and should arrive by spring. Emergency space heaters have been purchased to ensure that activities can continue and that pipes do not freeze.

Did you know?

When the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. adopted its new "Form of Government" for the Book of Order in 2011, it removed the category of inactive member. This means that a person is either a member or not. And while there were several reasons for this change, among them was to ensure that congregations took full responsibility for all those who were under pastoral care but might not be able to come to church any longer.